UPDATE: Alliance Pharma’s full-year outlook looking healthy

In similar vein, the stoma care products acquired in October 2012 contributed £2.0mln of sales.

The company said the first half of the year also benefited from Alliance’s toxicology product reaching the peak of its sales cycle.

The company, which has an enviable track record of bolt-on acquisitions, said it continues to pass a number of acquisition opportunities under the microscope.

finnCap analyst Keith Redpath noted that the period under review excluded the recent acquisition of Syntometrine which was announced in early June.

The broker is leaving its forecasts and ‘hold’ recommendation unchanged, even though the date of the expected return of ImmuCyst production seems to have slipped a bit.

“ImmuCyst is now expected to become available again during the second half of 2014; previously we had anticipated its return in the first half.

“However, our forecasts assume a very modest contribution next year: its absence from the market (it did command a 90% market share at peak, with annual sales of about £4m) has allowed the competing product, OncoTICE, to capture the market and it will take time to regain market share,” Redpath suggested.

Shares rose 0.3% to 36.125p on the trading update. finnCap has a target price of 38.5p for the shares.